WERC - Citizendia

WERC

City of license	Birmingham, Alabama
Branding	News Radio 960
Frequency	960 kHz
First air date	May, 1925
Format	News/Talk
Power	5,000 Watts
Class	B
Callsign meaning	A derivative of station's original call letters, WBRC
Owner	Clear Channel
Sister stations	WDXB, WENN, WMJJ, WQEN
Website	http://www.960werc.com

WERC (960 AM, "News Radio 960") is a radio station licensed to Birmingham, Alabama. A city of license or community of license, in American and Canadian broadcasting is the community that a Radio station or Television station Birmingham (ˈbɝmɪŋhæm is the largest City in the US state of Alabama and is the County seat of Jefferson County. Frequency is a measure of the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit Time. The hertz (symbol Hz) is a measure of Frequency, informally defined as the number of events occurring per Second. The year 1925 saw a number of significant events in Radio broadcasting. This article is about Broadcast radio, for other uses see Radio (disambiguation. Nominal power is a Measurement of a Mediumwave Radio station 's output used in the United States. The watt (symbol W) is the SI derived unit of power, equal to one Joule of energy per Second. This is a list of broadcast station classes applicable in much of North America under international agreements between the United States, Canada and In Broadcasting and Radio communications a call sign (also known as a callsign or call letters, or abbreviated as a call, or otherwise Clear Channel Communications is a media conglomerate company based in the United States. In Broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels (or "sibling stations" in gender-neutral form are radio and/or Television stations WDXB (1025 FM, "102-5 the Bull" is a Clear Channel -owned Country music formatted Radio station licensed to Jasper Alabama WMJJ (965 FM) "Magic 965" is a Clear Channel -owned Classic Hits Radio station that broadcasts from Birmingham WQEN (1037 FM, "103-7 the Q" is a Clear Channel -owned Top 40 music formatted Radio station licensed to Trussville Alabama A website (alternatively web site or Web site, a back-construction from the Proper noun World Wide Web) is a collection of Web pages This article is about radio broadcasting for other uses see Radio (disambiguation. Birmingham (ˈbɝmɪŋhæm is the largest City in the US state of Alabama and is the County seat of Jefferson County. Its daytime and nighttime power are both 5,000 Watts. The watt (symbol W) is the SI derived unit of power, equal to one Joule of energy per Second. In 1982, it became the first radio station in Birmingham to convert to a news/talk format. WERC is the home in Birmingham for the syndicated radio shows of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. Glenn Beck (born February 10, 1964) is an American radio and Television host, conservative Political commentator Rush Hudson Limbaugh III (born January 12, 1951) is an American radio host and conservative Political commentator.

WERC is owned by Clear Channel. Clear Channel Communications is a media conglomerate company based in the United States. Other stations in the Birmingham market owned by Clear Channel include WMJJ-FM (96. WMJJ (965 FM) "Magic 965" is a Clear Channel -owned Classic Hits Radio station that broadcasts from Birmingham 5), WDXB-FM (102. WDXB (1025 FM, "102-5 the Bull" is a Clear Channel -owned Country music formatted Radio station licensed to Jasper Alabama 5), WQEN-FM (103. WQEN (1037 FM, "103-7 the Q" is a Clear Channel -owned Top 40 music formatted Radio station licensed to Trussville Alabama 7), and WENN-FM (105. 5).

History

The forerunner of WERC was the first radio station in Birmingham, and the second station in Alabama. In May 1925, WBRC signed on, broadcasting with 50 Watts power at 1210 AM. Throughout the 1920s the station increased its broadcast power several times as well as its broadcast frequency. By 1935, the station was affiliated with the NBC network. The National Broadcasting Company ( NBC) is an American Television network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's

In 1946, WBRC introduced the first FM station in Birmingham. Due to the lack of FM radios in Birmingham, WBRC-FM was not very successful, and was taken off the air two years later. In 1949, the owners of WBRC-AM launched the second television station in Birmingham, as WBRC-TV made its debut on Channel 4. WBRC, channel 6 is a Television station in the Birmingham / Anniston / Tuscaloosa Alabama television market and it's affiliated by the The local owners of WBRC-AM and TV sold the stations to Storer Broadcasting in 1953, and four years later, the stations were sold to Taft Broadcasting. Storer Broadcasting Inc is a former owner of Television and Radio stations in the United States The Taft Broadcasting Company, also known as Taft Television and Radio Company Incorporated, was a media conglomerate based in Cincinnati Ohio.

The advent of television in the 1950s caused network radio programming to decline. By the early 1960s, WBRC was one of two "middle of the road" music stations in Birmingham. It continued in that format until 1972, when Taft Broadcasting sold WBRC-AM and FM to Mooney Broadcasting. Taft retained ownership of the TV station until 1987. The new owners of the radio stations changed the call letters to WERC-AM and FM. WERC-AM was christened “96-ERC”, and launched an all-out assault on the market’s leading Top 40 station, WSGN (now WAGG). WAGG (610 AM, "Heaven 610" is a Radio station licensed to Birmingham Alabama.

For much of the 1970s WERC and WSGN were two of the most listened-to stations in Birmingham. The beginning of WERCs demise as a Top 40 powerhouse came in 1977, when its FM sister station at the time WBRC-FM (106. 9) was re-launched as Top 40 WKXX-Kicks 106 (now WBPT). WBPT (1069 FM, "106-9 The Eagle" is a Classic hits music-formatted Radio station licensed to Homewood Alabama, that serves the By 1980, WERC modified its format to adult contemporary music and was known as News Plus 960, WERC. An afternoon drive sports call-in show hosted by future University of Alabama football announcer Eli Gold was launched in 1981. Eli Gold (born 1953 in) is an American Sportscaster. Gold is best known as the radio voice for the Alabama Crimson Tide football team along with Tom Roberts Competing unsuccessfully against WSGN and WAPI-AM as an adult contemporary station, WERC dropped music in 1982 and adopted its present news-talk format, which it continues with today. The station was an early affiliate for Rush Limbaugh's radio network. Rush Hudson Limbaugh III (born January 12, 1951) is an American radio host and conservative Political commentator.

For much of the 1990s the WERC line-up featured TC and John Ed as morning hosts, Paul Finebaum in the afternoons, and Russ and Dee Fine hosting evenings. Paul Finebaum is an American Columnist, Author, Television and Radio personality based in Birmingham Alabama.

During a 1993 snowstorm that paralyzed the Birmingham area, WERC became the primary source of information and assistance for hundreds of thousands of residents that were stranded by the weather without power (in some cases for weeks).

External links

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